Orioles third baseman Jordan Westburg has been no stranger to injuries over the first few years of his time in the majors, and his latest ailments are a partially-torn UCL and oblique soreness. The oblique issue appears to be fairly minor, but he’s received a platelet-rich plasma injection in his elbow in hopes of rehabbing his UCL and will be out until at least May due to the issue. Setbacks of this sort have become all too common for Westburg in recent years. Since making his big league debut in 2023, he’s missed time due to a broken hand, a sprained ankle, a strained hamstring, and an index finger sprain.
When on the field, there’s no question that Westburg has proven to be one of the Orioles’ most talented young players. An All-Star in 2024, Westburg is a career .264/.312/.456 hitter in just over 1,000 career plate appearances and can play capable defense at both second and third base. The .269/.317/.497 slash line Westburg posted in 101 games prior to the aforementioned broken hand during the 2024 season is even more impressive and shows that the 27-year-old has the potential to be a star for Baltimore when he’s healthy enough to take the field at full strength.
Those times have been increasingly uncommon over the past few years, however, and when asked about it by Orioles reporters Westburg seemed frustrated. He told MASN’s Roch Kubatko that he doesn’t know when he’ll be able to play again after his latest PRP injection, and Matt Weyrich of The Baltimore Sun relays that Westburg admitted the constant injuries have taken a mental toll on him.
“I’d like to sit here and say, ‘extremely confident,’ but some of this wears on you mentally,” Westburg said (as relayed by Weyrich) when asked about his ability to stay healthy and be an everyday player for the Orioles. “So, there are doubts, but like I said, I’m going to do my best to kind of see what avenues that I can go down to maybe help bulletproof my body a little bit more. I don’t know if there’s a way to do that, but I’m going to try.”
While Westburg looks to push through the obstacles currently standing between him and a return to the field, the Orioles will be looking to open the season without either him or second baseman Jackson Holliday. That could open the door for Coby Mayo to return to third base and recent trade acquisition Blaze Alexander to see time at they keystone. Utility man Jeremiah Jackson and third baseman Bryan Ramos are among the other players currently on the 40-man roster who could compete for additional time on the infield while Westburg and Holliday are unavailable.
More from around the AL East…
- The Yankees are bolstering their international scouting department with the addition of longtime Cubs front office member Nao Masamoto, according to a report from Patrick Mooney and Brendan Kuty of The Athletic. The pair note that Masamoto has been instrumental to the Cubs’ recruitment efforts with players coming over from Nippon Professional Baseball and their ability to provide a smooth transition for the players (like Seiya Suzuki and Shota Imanaga) who do wind up signing with them. Chicago has emerged as a destination for Japanese talent during Masamoto’s tenure with the club, while the Yankees have struggled to court players like Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki in recent years. While they were once a top choice for NPB talent themselves, they haven’t rostered a Japanese player since Masahiro Tanaka departed MLB following the 2020 season.
- A pair of Rays players are facing some restrictions as Spring Training games get underway. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reported recently that right-hander Steven Wilson, who Tampa acquired from the White Sox in a trade during the offseason, has been slowed by a back injury entering camp. Wilson enjoyed a solid season with Chicago last year where he pitched to a 3.42 ERA across 59 appearances despite middling peripherals. Also sidelined at the moment is shortstop Taylor Walls, who Topkin notes was scratched from the Rays’ lineup due to oblique tightness. That sounds worrisome for Tampa, but the club has fortunately described Walls’ removal from today’s lineup as purely precautionary. Carson Williams would likely be the next man up to handle shortstop if Walls were sidelined during the regular season.
Should sideline Walls more.
I wonder how much of the Yanks failure to sign Yamamoto or Sasaki had to do with a disconnect between team and player/ representative vs both just having a preference to the Dodgers and/or playing in the West Coast? But worth the hire regardless.
Probably more likely they wanted the west coast but the Yankees changing things up with their international scouting was long overdue. They have had way too many failures over the last several years.
Yeah, this shakeup is almost surely more about the repeated failures of large-bonus IFA teenagers than whatever happened with well-established Japanese players. I’m not sure that the Yankees have done that much worse than other teams in signing Latin American bonus babies, but they sure haven’t done better. One wonders if the “Allocate a big chunk of the IFA budget to one famous guy who we’ve been locked in on since he was 12” strategy is not the optimal approach to spending in that market.
The big chunk strategy is what every other team that has annually targeted top 20 IFA talent is doing. It’s not how they spend it, it’s who they spend it on. Other than JD they’ve gotten nothing from position players other the last decade+ other than Cabrera. Alacantra was a good sign and at least has played well at AAA for CHI but most don’t even make it that far.
The other teams haven’t done so great with that strategy, either! The lists of top IFA prospects/mega-bonus guys are a real Who’s Who of Who’s That? I am increasingly dubious that the industry standard MO is working. And quite a few of the better ones are Cuban guys who came over a few years older than the typical IFA signing.
As noted already, it’s a cumulation of that and also the money wasted on draft bonuses on signing many Latin prospects which haven’t panned out. Got to shake things up if it ain’t working. I haven’t cared about their bonus pool money and int’l signings in a while.
This is perfect example of what happens when everyone falls under one set of rules for bonus allotments. Teams that do a better job at actual scouting wind up on top. Wonder what would happen if team’s payroll was handled the same way?
If you’re inferring to a salary cap, I’m not against it. A cap does need to be structured to distribute year-by-year revenues proportionately to players which the owners will naturally be resistant to do. Rich teams will still have a competitive advantage to drafting int’l talent simply because they have more resources in manpower to dedicate.
International draft would make sense to even the playing field
You also then will attract less NPB and KBO talent who request to depart their respective leagues because most don’t want to be subjected to the first six years of the MLB system. The stars there will be taking a huge paycut at least in their first three years.
Maybe they enter the draft as teens? Or maybe the draft only applies to amateurs?
Lol. It’s beyond my paygrade. The billionaires will need to figure it out.
Damn the saltines, man, this is the Bronx! 🤣
Westburg is a walking injury. It’s a shame, very talented player
Agreed. He’s a beast when healthy. He’s never healthy. Even most of the time he’s played in the last 2 seasons has been post-injury, He did A LOT of work. to increase offensive production After ’23, and we’ve yet to see the results of it for a full season, so people just don’t understand yet. You really have to be either a pretty serious O’s fan or fantasy player to have really picked up on it.
Henderson gets all the love, and rightly so, but next on the love list SHOULD be Westburg, not Rutchman. I think he got the hype from talent evaluators because there was a chance he could be a decent offensive catcher, and there hadn’t been one of those since early Realmuto at the time he graduated.
You also need a good imagination since it hasn’t applied to results, yet.
I’ve had him on my fantasy teams the least 3 years (keeper league) so I’ve been following him pretty closely, like you said. I think he can put up big numbers in a full season but the patience is running thin.
Kinda interesting that New York hasn’t been able to attract much Japanese talent. I am assuming it refers just to the top guys. Has NY lost some appeal of just being the Yankees or does the extra travel to the East coast matter a lot?
Yes, and yes.
I thought Westburg was gonna be JJ Hardy but it seems that if he does, it will be elsewhere. Just no long stretches of good health since he came up. After that crapfest of the Ravens season, the Os last season, and the bucket of turds that is the Maryland Terps, I really could use some fun baseball. Please baseball gods make the Os good this season.
The O’s are effectively adding five really good hitters to their big 5 holdovers:
the 2 acqs, the 2 rookies, and O’Neill is effectively an additional bat vs last year. Bradish Rogers expected to have at least 2x their 24 starts, baz way better than others they pitched last yr. Bullpen a bit worse than before but the pitching is going to be much better, if relatively healthy.
You will see good baseball and you will probably see them in the playoffs. Still might not see them win a game, though.
I have moved from “when Westburg can take the field” to “if”. I’ve been a fan long enough to remember Jeffrey Hammonds, David Segui, and Nolan Reimold – Westburg is in that category.
The Orioles really need a faster start than last year. Going 16-34 and having it be by totally inept starting pitching, a complete inability to hit with RISP and against LHP at all – that can’t happen again. Being above .500 at the 2026 quarter season mark will feel like a vast improvement and present optimism. Kind of like how winning opening day 1989 already made them seem so much better than 1988 when starting 0-21.
I do think they improved the rotation enough that I expect a pretty good start. 30-20 ish Completely agree that they cant start like last season
Much as people want to focus on the pitching, the story of last year’s collapse was the hitting, 2:1.
ERA+ fell 11% but OPS+ fell 21%.
Fantastic hire by the Yankees! Hopefully that leads to a better pipeline to NPB players. Matsui and Tanaka are two of my all-time favorite Yankees.
Tanaka apparently encountered some pretty intense racist sentiment in NYC around the beginning of COVID. He discussed it in Japanese press. Since then, I haven’t expected many (at least) Japanese players to sign. I thought maybe they’d eventually try to take on a lesser FA and treat him well to try to quell fears, but I guess they figure, “why mess with the roster?”
You never wish for an injury, but man, if Walls could get forced out of the lineup somehow, that would be great for Rays fans who want to see some wins.
Spencer Jones crushed one in Saturday’s game vs. Detroit. The computer measured it at 408 ft., but it looked like it cleared the fan deck and left the ballpark to me.
SS Carson Williams should be the everyday starter for Tampa. He is the future and should be the now as well. Walls could be the utility player that he is. Give him the chance, even though he struggled during his cup of coffee at the end of last year. IMO
Westburg has been so good and fun to watch play when healthy. Its sad that he continues to be hurt. Good luck to him in his rehab.